One year ago Friday, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovitch received a chilling phone call from the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal. Their son, Evan, was a foreign correspondent for the Journal and was on a reporting mission in Russia, when he neglected daily security check-ins.
“We were hoping that this was some kind of mistake and that everything would be fine,” the elderly Mr. Gershkovitch recalls. However, a surprising reality has become clear. Russian authorities detained Evan and charged him with spying for the U.S. government, making him the first American reporter to be arrested on suspicion of espionage in Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Since his arrest, Mr. Gershkovych, 32, has been held in Moscow's notorious high-security Lefortovo prison, which houses people accused in this month's attack at a concert venue in the city. is. The newspaper and the U.S. government strongly deny that Gershkovic is a spy, saying he was carrying out his duties as an accredited journalist.
On Tuesday, Gershković's detention was extended for another three months. A trial date has not been set.
“Every day is so hard. We feel every day that he's not here,” Millman said. “We want him to stay home, but it's been a year. It's taken a toll.”
Roger Carstens, the Biden administration's special envoy for hostage affairs, said the U.S. government was working “intensively” to secure Gershkovic's release and the release of Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan, who is also being held. “Efforts are underway,” he said. Espionage.
“Journalism is not a crime,” Carstens said in a statement. “Evan Gershkovich was doing his job and he should not have been detained by Russia.”
Jay Conti, general counsel for the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones, said Russian President Vladimir V. Putin's recent public comments about a possible prisoner exchange could be cause for optimism. He said there is.
Last month, in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Mr. Putin called out Mr. Gershkovych and Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national jailed in Germany for assassinating a target in a Berlin park. He suggested that he would like to exchange it.
Early talks between U.S. and German officials indicate that Berlin will agree to release the assassins if Russia releases opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny in addition to Mr. Gershkovych and Mr. Whelan. It was considered whether But Navalny's mysterious death in an Arctic prison last month derailed that possibility.
“I don't think it's a secret that there aren't that many big-name Russians in U.S. custody, so that makes any potential agreement that much more complicated,” Conti said. “I think the U.S. government has been actively working to bring Evan home, but to do that we obviously need a willing partner and we need to work out an agreement.”
While in prison, Gershkovic has been spending time playing chess with his father through the mail and studying from books recommended by friends, his parents said. He also keeps track of people's birthdays and milestones, and has arranged through others to send flowers to his mother and sister this month on International Women's Day.
“It's a very small, very isolated place, with small windows and very little time to go outside,” the father said of his son's cell. “We know that it takes a lot of courage, effort, and strength to come together, to exercise, to meditate, to read books, to write letters, to keep our hearts strong, and to encourage ourselves to hope for the best. I know.”
Gershkovic exchanges weekly letters not only with his family, but also with friends and pen pals around the world. A group of his friends set up a website where people could post letters. The letter was translated into Russian, as required by law, and sent to Gershkovic, who said he was pleased to receive it.
“He's fighting. He's staying strong,” Millman said.
Mr. Gershkovitch grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of Jewish immigrants who defected from the Soviet Union in the 1970s. His parents said that he was interested in Russian traditions from an early age and that Russian was spoken at home. Also interested in people, he studied philosophy and English at Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 2014. Journalism seemed like a perfect fit.
After working as a news assistant at the New York Times for about two years, Gershkovitch moved to Russia in late 2017 to work as a reporter for the Moscow Times. He worked for Agence France-Presse and joined the Journal in January 2022, a job that his parents said he loved.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Gershkovych, along with most foreign journalists, left Moscow and relocated to London. However, he frequently returned to Russia on reporting trips.
The Wall Street Journal has worked hard to keep Mr. Gershkovitch's plight in the headlines, said editor-in-chief Emma Tucker. A large photo of him hangs in the newsroom, and his colleagues wear “Free Evan” pins. The Journal's homepage features the latest information on Gershkovic's case, and the company has organized a letter-writing campaign, a social media storm, and even a 24-hour reading of Gershkovic's coverage. ing.
“We have to keep the pressure on,” Tucker said. “We refuse to give up.”
His arrest was a particularly chilling moment in Mr. Putin's crackdown on independent media and opposition. Hundreds of independent Russian journalists have been expelled from the country, but Putin had never previously jailed a Western journalist on a charge that would have resulted in jail time.
Russian authorities arrested Whelan in 2018 on charges of espionage, which he and the US government deny. In early 2022, Russian authorities arrested basketball player Brittney Griner on suspicion of drug smuggling. They then traded her for Victor Bout, a convicted arms trafficker who had been pursuing extradition from American prisons for years.
Mr. Griner's release at the end of 2022 and the swap imbalance in which the basketball player was arrested with hashish oil for arms traffickers could lead Mr. Putin to target other Americans and help them secure large sums of money. Concerns were raised that it could be used as leverage. -Profile, Dangerous Russians Captured in Western Countries.
Mr. Gershkovic's arrest followed several months later. This had a wide-ranging impact on Russian reporting, as many major news organizations withdrew their journalists from Russia and reassessed the risks of any reporting in the region. Another journalist, Ars Kurmasheva, an American-Russian national who works for the US-owned broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained in October while visiting Russia to visit his mother. She was charged with failing to register her as a foreign agent, and she remains in custody.
Grunoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in an interview that Russian journalists know they are “constantly at risk.”
“Before Evan's case, foreign correspondents who might have been deemed too critical of Russian policy were denied visa extensions or accreditation,” Saeed explained. “It has become clear that the Russian authorities will stop at nothing to suppress independent media.”
Gershkovic's parents met with President Biden, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and said they spent time ensuring the Biden administration focused on him. Stated. Both men traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum this year, and were guests at Biden's State of the Union address on March 7, during which the president said that the United States would not accept Gershkovic's invitation “24 hours a day. He said that he is working on this issue systematically. House.
“I know they are engaged and President Biden is enthusiastic, but I would like to see a resolution as soon as possible,” Millman said.
Mr. Gershkovic's trial date is expected to be set in the coming months, said Mr. Conti, general counsel at Dow Jones. Trials are held behind closed doors, with little transparency in the process.
Until then, Gershkovic's parents said they will continue to wait for his release.
“We have to be optimistic to keep moving forward,” the father said. “We don't have any other skills to deal with this.”
Paul Sonne Contributed to the report.